Conservative radio host Glenn Beck was more of a firecracker than usual Wednesday morning as he began talking about a subject that has been rustling around in his mind for quite awhile: Speaker John Boehner‘s (R-Ohio) purported alcoholism.
Beck said Boehner’s boozing is now fair game since Sidney Blumenthal, Hillary Clinton‘s former advisor and confidant, mentioned it in a latest batch of her private emails.
“Boehner is despised by the younger, more conservative members of the House Republican Conference,” Blumenthal wrote Clinton. “They are repelled by his personal behavior. He is louche, alcoholic, lazy, and without any commitment to any principle. Boehner has already tried to buy the members with campaign contributions and committee assignments, which he has already promised to potentially difficult members. His hold is insecure.”
Beck said Boehner’s problem has always been hush-hush.
“This is really not being covered, but I think it should be said out loud,” said Beck, mentioning his own alcoholism. “…Sidney Blumenthal writes that John Boehner is an alcoholic.”
Beck confessed that he wanted his reporters at TheBlaze — of which he owns 90 percent — to stake out a bar where Boehner supposedly drinks and see how often he shows up.
“I have begged people,” he said. “I have even suggested to our news department at TheBlaze…send an undercover reporter into the bar. Let’s track how many times he’s at the bar.”
Except that didn’t go over too well.
“The people who make the decisions to make the news said no,” he said. “And those people are no longer with me. We are doing a whole revamp of TheBlaze. Enough is enough. Enough is enough. Enough is enough. You can only play the game for so long, trying to play the game, try to play by the rules, yada yada yada. There are things everyone knows but no one is willing to say or to do.”
The Mirror sought comment from Boehner spokeswoman Emily Schillinger. She said it’s the statement she has given reporters in response to Blumenthal’s remarks.
“The fact is the only reason that the mishandling of classified information by Hillary Clinton and her staff has been exposed is because of Speaker Boehner’s decision to create the select committee and our members’ diligence and hard work.”
Beck said he’s also had a rough time convincing sources to dish about it.
“We’ve never had anyone else willing to go on record about it,” he said. “We have heard this from multiple sources on the Republican side that if you don’t get to Boehner by 7, 8 o’clock at night that he is hammered.”
Beck continued, “I just know that he is beyond drunk.” At which point his co-hosts reminded him not to just state that. Beck quickly added, “I mean multiple sources.”
Alarm bells went off for Beck and his cohosts when the news surfaced earlier in January that a former bartender wanted to poison Boehner.
Beck explained, “We were trying to send the message: Who has a bartender?”
The host said the alleged alcoholism raises questions about whether Boehner is fit for office.
“This guy is sick,” said Beck. “And as an alcoholic I know how difficult it is, but it’s interesting that everyone still rallies around him. …My concern has always been if the guy’s a raging alcoholic, how much danger does that put the United States of America in…a guy that you can’t trust is sober?”
Watch below.